Build Your Wings
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: A short collection of drabbles and poems about Levi's childhood. For Zero.
1. Build Your Wings

**DISCLAIMER: Attack on Titan belongs to Hajime Isayama.**

~ Build Your Wings ~

Barren branches of bone  
Upon your back spread  
Out from shoulder blades  
Waiting to be filled in  
With fibrous cords of  
Muscle and tendon  
Shot through with veins  
With thin sheets of skin  
Stretched over them  
And covered with feathers  
Eventually you will find  
Your way to the sky

~oOo~


	2. Little Bird

~ Build Your Wings ~

For the first two months she doesn't know, doesn't even begin to suspect. For the next two months she is in denial, writing off each symptom as something else, because it shouldn't have been possible and she doesn't want this and she just can't and maybe if she ignores the problem it will stop being real.

It becomes very real in the fifth month, when some of her regulars are put off by the now-noticeable changes in her appearance. A doctor is sent for, and confirms her condition.

It is still difficult for her to think of it as _her baby_ rather than _her problem_ , but the strange fluttery movements it makes force her mind to concede that she does indeed carry within her something alive. Something about the way it moves makes her compare it to a caged bird.

The doctor offers her a solution, tells her to take her time and think about it.

She decides to keep her little bird.

~oOo~


	3. Fifth Birthday

~ Build Your Wings ~

At four years old, Levi isn't really old enough to understand what his mother's job is, but he's old enough to be sent out in the streets to play by himself whenever she has a customer. The streets are full of other children, but he avoids them. The one time he did attempt to socialize, they called him names and threw rocks and dirt at him until he was forced to retreat back into the building. That day, his mother had been yelled at by The Boss for wasting bathwater on Levi "when it doesn't matter if he's clean or not and the kid's just going to get filthy again in no time anyway".

Normally his mother calls him back inside several times a day, but lately Levi has been left outside from early afternoon until well after dark. He begins to wonder if he really is unwanted, as those other children once told him he was. He hadn't believed it back then, but recently it seems like his mother doesn't want him around anymore...

* * *

Without being told, Levi starts to make his way to the back door.

"Where are you going?"

The boy stops short at the sound of his mother's voice.

"Outside?" he answers uncertainly. Surely that should be obvious to her.

He lets out a squeal when she sweeps him up into her arms.

"Not today," she says. "Do you know what today is?"

"No..." he replies, nonplussed.

"It's your birthday. My little man turns five today! Mama worked a lot these past few weeks so we can spend the whole day together."

~oOo~


	4. Recycled

~ Build Your Wings ~

There are a few other children in the building, but all of them are older than her son. Kuchel wouldn't have had anyone to pass the clothes Levi has grown out of on to anyway, so she does not feel guilty at all for what she has done with them. Her sewing skills are, if not _good_ , at least passable. The little ragdoll she made bears enough of a resemblance to the animal it was modeled after that her son recognized it, and that was what mattered.

She doesn't care if she will be yelled at for wasting resources. The way her two-year-old's little face lit up when he saw the toy was worth it, even if she does end up being reprimanded later. Levi's excited squeal of "It a birb!" brings a smile to her face every time she thinks of it.

~oOo~


	5. Freedom

~ Build Your Wings ~

Freedom isn't like you thought it would be.  
It's hard and rough, and bittersweet.  
Your wings stretch wide,  
You can fly,  
But now you understand,  
That if you're not careful,  
You might crash land.  
Your shoulders are strong,  
And someday you'll soar,  
But clawing your way up,  
Is what your talons are for.

~oOo~


End file.
